Online Giving Q&A
Online Giving is something that’s new to many of us, and we wanted to answer your common questions and make this entire process as easy as possible.
Q: How do I use online giving to send a tithe to the church?
A: Sending a tithe to the church is simple! We use Vanco, an electronic payment and donation processing platform, to receive your tithe. If you’ve ever bought something online, the process is almost the same.
Step 1: Find our Vanco page. You can do this by visiting the home page of our website and clicking on the "ONLINE GIVING" button above our COVID-19 updates.
Step 2: Click the “Give” button on the tile that’s labeled “Regular Tithe/Offering.”
Step 3: In the “Amount” box, type in the amount you’d like to give. It automatically fills in the $ for you, so just type the numbers you want to use. If you want to add change to the amount, just press the “.” key before filling in the cents.
Step 4: Select how often you’d like to give your tithe. For this example, we’re selecting “Once, now.” This will send us a single tithe immediately.
Step 5: Click the green “Add to Basket” button.
Step 6: Click the green “Proceed to Payment” button.
Step 7: You will be asked to fill in the information for your credit or debit card and then your contact information, just like any other online purchase. You can also choose if you want to cover the transaction fee* by clicking the switch on the right-hand side of the screen. (*Please see question below on What does it mean when Vanco asks me if I want to cover the transaction fee?)
Step 8: When you’re done, click the green “Continue to Review” button.
Step 9: Review and finalize your donation by clicking the “Submit” button!
Q: Can I set up an automatic weekly tithe to the church? How do I do this?
A: YES. Unlike making a single donation, you will have to make a Vanco account in order to set up a reoccurring tithe.
Step 1: On the Federated Church’s Vanco page, look at the top right corner for text that says “Sign Up.” Enter your email address, click on the grey “Sign Up” button, and follow all of their instructions to make your account.
Step 2: Click the “Give” button on the tile that’s labeled “Regular Tithe/Offering.”
Step 3: In the “Amount” box, type in the amount you’d like to give. It automatically fills in the $ for you, so just type the numbers you want to use. If you want to add change to the amount, just press the “.” key before filling in the cents.
Step 4: In order to make a reoccurring donation, select “Every week” for the Frequency, which will prompt it to ask you to pick a date to start giving your tithe on. When you click in the “Start Date” box, it will show you a calendar and you can either manually type in a date or click the date on the calendar you want to start your weekly giving on. We recommend selecting a Sunday.
Step 5: Follow the rest of the steps like normal!
Q: Can I make other types of offerings to the church?
A: YES. Currently we are offering the ability to make Special Offerings (like for Thanksgiving Sunday or Christmas) and the monthly Quarter (Coin) Offering for the Westside Food Pantry. Stay tuned, we might have more donation options available in the future!
Q: I don’t have a credit or debit card, can I still give online?
A: YES. If you have a bank account, you can give online! Go through the payment steps like usual until you get to the Payment Method screen. It defaults to asking for Credit or Debit card information, but just below the large “Payment Method” heading there is text that reads “Bank Account.” Click on that text and it will switch over to that payment type.
Q: What does it mean when Vanco asks me if I want to cover the transaction fee?
A: When you make a donation to the church through Vanco, they take a small percent of the money from your donation as a fee for using their platform. For example, if you donate $100, we will receive $97.25 of your donation and Vanco will receive $2.75 as payment for transferring your money to us.
If you click on the switch on the right-hand side of the screen while checking out, you are offering to pay that transaction fee yourself so the church gets the entirety of your donation. To use our previous example, if you offered to cover the transaction fee on your $100 donation, you will pay $102.75 and we will receive all $100 while Vanco still gets their $2.75 fee.
Thank you for reading. You are still welcome to mail your offerings and tithes! We just wanted to provide you with more options. Thank you for your generosity and support.
Q: How do I use online giving to send a tithe to the church?
A: Sending a tithe to the church is simple! We use Vanco, an electronic payment and donation processing platform, to receive your tithe. If you’ve ever bought something online, the process is almost the same.
Step 1: Find our Vanco page. You can do this by visiting the home page of our website and clicking on the "ONLINE GIVING" button above our COVID-19 updates.
Step 2: Click the “Give” button on the tile that’s labeled “Regular Tithe/Offering.”
Step 3: In the “Amount” box, type in the amount you’d like to give. It automatically fills in the $ for you, so just type the numbers you want to use. If you want to add change to the amount, just press the “.” key before filling in the cents.
Step 4: Select how often you’d like to give your tithe. For this example, we’re selecting “Once, now.” This will send us a single tithe immediately.
Step 5: Click the green “Add to Basket” button.
Step 6: Click the green “Proceed to Payment” button.
Step 7: You will be asked to fill in the information for your credit or debit card and then your contact information, just like any other online purchase. You can also choose if you want to cover the transaction fee* by clicking the switch on the right-hand side of the screen. (*Please see question below on What does it mean when Vanco asks me if I want to cover the transaction fee?)
Step 8: When you’re done, click the green “Continue to Review” button.
Step 9: Review and finalize your donation by clicking the “Submit” button!
Q: Can I set up an automatic weekly tithe to the church? How do I do this?
A: YES. Unlike making a single donation, you will have to make a Vanco account in order to set up a reoccurring tithe.
Step 1: On the Federated Church’s Vanco page, look at the top right corner for text that says “Sign Up.” Enter your email address, click on the grey “Sign Up” button, and follow all of their instructions to make your account.
Step 2: Click the “Give” button on the tile that’s labeled “Regular Tithe/Offering.”
Step 3: In the “Amount” box, type in the amount you’d like to give. It automatically fills in the $ for you, so just type the numbers you want to use. If you want to add change to the amount, just press the “.” key before filling in the cents.
Step 4: In order to make a reoccurring donation, select “Every week” for the Frequency, which will prompt it to ask you to pick a date to start giving your tithe on. When you click in the “Start Date” box, it will show you a calendar and you can either manually type in a date or click the date on the calendar you want to start your weekly giving on. We recommend selecting a Sunday.
Step 5: Follow the rest of the steps like normal!
Q: Can I make other types of offerings to the church?
A: YES. Currently we are offering the ability to make Special Offerings (like for Thanksgiving Sunday or Christmas) and the monthly Quarter (Coin) Offering for the Westside Food Pantry. Stay tuned, we might have more donation options available in the future!
Q: I don’t have a credit or debit card, can I still give online?
A: YES. If you have a bank account, you can give online! Go through the payment steps like usual until you get to the Payment Method screen. It defaults to asking for Credit or Debit card information, but just below the large “Payment Method” heading there is text that reads “Bank Account.” Click on that text and it will switch over to that payment type.
Q: What does it mean when Vanco asks me if I want to cover the transaction fee?
A: When you make a donation to the church through Vanco, they take a small percent of the money from your donation as a fee for using their platform. For example, if you donate $100, we will receive $97.25 of your donation and Vanco will receive $2.75 as payment for transferring your money to us.
If you click on the switch on the right-hand side of the screen while checking out, you are offering to pay that transaction fee yourself so the church gets the entirety of your donation. To use our previous example, if you offered to cover the transaction fee on your $100 donation, you will pay $102.75 and we will receive all $100 while Vanco still gets their $2.75 fee.
Thank you for reading. You are still welcome to mail your offerings and tithes! We just wanted to provide you with more options. Thank you for your generosity and support.